Motor retail group Swansway believes in encouraging and growing young talent and plans to increase its apprentice intake 50%, by 2017.

This year, Swansway has twenty-four apprentices across the group, they’re in roles across the spectrum including technicians, administrators and service advisors.

Previous apprentices across Swansway have gone on to achieve great success; Tom Chadwick, a technician from Crewe Volkswagen was runner-up for Volkswagen Group Apprentice of the Year 2014.

Esther Sellers who started as a customer service apprentice went on to become an Audi accredited service advisor and winner of the Automotive Management AM Award for Best Service Advisor of the Year 2015.

Swansway Group HR director Rachael Monfredi said: “With our heritage, it was always part of the Swansway ethos to grow our own staff; our values of caring, honest and proud are key to making our business different from the rest, so, training our own team members to live and breathe our values, makes perfect sense.

“Over the next two years our apprentice intake will increase by 50% and 2017 will see Swansway with at least thirty-six apprentices across all sites. Be under no illusions, the cost of training an apprentice is considerable, around about £10,000 per year, so this year alone we’re investing a quarter of a million pounds and that will obviously increase; however, this is definitely an investment worth making for us to nurture home grown talent.

“These are just a few examples of the achievements of our apprentices; growing our own talent ensures that our caring, honest and proud culture is there right from the start and we are looking forward to welcoming our increased intake of Apprentices in 2016.”